The search for a more efficient and satisfactory method of removing unwanted hair from the human body is a continuing endeavor and razors for that purpose, with specific claims of improved performance, are being constantly offered to the market.
A parallel endeavor is the development of preshave preparations to help alleviate the detrimental skin abrasion and after-shave irritation often associated with the shaving procedure. Within about the past decade, advances have been made and U.S. Patents granted on Methods of Shaving which employ soapless, non-foaming preshave preparations to facilitate the passage of the razor blade over the skin surface and protect the skin from the abrading action of the razor edge. Those new types of preshave preparations have been based, primarily, on formulations incorporating, as the active ingredient, selected high molecular weight, water soluble polymers.
Those new-type preshave preparations are of two basic physical types. One is in the form of a fluid, aqueous solution of a water-soluble polymer and the other, a solid aqueous solution of a water-soluble polymer. The solid aqueous solution type of preshave preparation apparently demonstrates some performance superiority over the liquid aqueous solution type, as it can be placed, on the skin surface, in a higher concentration of polymer molecules than with the fluid aqueous solution formulation with a resultant increased ability to guard the skin surface against the abrading action of the razor edge.
The solid aqueous solution type preshave preparation also has a distinct advantage over the fluid solution type and aerosol foam type preshave preparations, in that, for an equivalent number of shaves, it can be packaged in a container of many units less, both in package size and weight.
The novel and unique feature, of the invention of my Method of Shaving, is primarily, concerned with the physical aspects of the device employed to create a superior protective film on the skin to effectively aid passage of the razor over the skin and guard the skin surface against the nicking and abrading action of the razor edge.
That device, quite simply, consists of a solid, solvent-free mass of selected size and shape of a suitable, high molecular weight, water soluble polymer with such mass having attached a suitable handle or grip to facilitate manual manipulation of the device. The polymer portion, of the device, is preferably a comparatively thin wafer with preferably, a round plan form but which may also be of oval, rectangular, square or other plan form. The wafer thickness is determined by the number of shaves to be secured from a single device.
It is calculated that a polymer wafer of about 13/8 inch diameter, a thickness of about 1/8 inch and 2 gm weight will yield daily shaves for about 2 months. This device, having a polymer wafer of the foregoing dimension and a suitable handle, will be no more than 13/8 inch diameter, 11/2 inch in height and weight only about 10 grams.
The preferred water soluble polymer, for use in the fabrication of the device used with my Method of Shaving, is polyethylene oxide having a molecular weight of about 4,000,000. That material is normally supplied as a white, dry powder.
The polymer has been easily formed into a solid, solvent-free wafer by pressing the powdered material into a cavity with the desired plan configuration. The resulting wafer is of a relatively hard, dense structure which will withstand normal handling and usage.
In commercial production, the wafer can be quickly formed, at minimum cost, in a pharmaceutical tableting machine. The fabrication, of this unique shaving device, is completed by attaching it to the handle with contact-type cement or other suitable adhesive.